The City That Rose into the Sky
[To the one who recognized me, to the one I have chosen.
Please, never forget your mission.
Follow the light of heaven and journey to the ends of the world.
—From Volume 8 of the Complete Records of the Heavenly Hee Kingdom]*
Deep in the middle of a forest stood a Buddhist temple.
A waterfall poured through a steep valley nearby, while a pond covered in lotus flowers filled the front courtyard, adding an air of peaceful beauty to the place.
The sound of prayers leaked through the doors of the main hall.
The people gathered inside were ordinary civilians dressed in plain, colorless clothes. They placed their palms against the floor, bowed deeply, and recited sutras.
Standing at the front of the hall was their leader, Monk Wongwang.
He was a middle-aged man with a deeply lined face and calm, heavy eyes.
Anyone who looked closely enough could tell that he was no ordinary man.
He had once held the position of National Preceptor, the highest-ranking monk in the kingdom.
After stepping down from that position, however, he began leading a spiritual community made up of common people.
They were known as the Jeongil Society.
Using the lotus and the sword as their symbols, they had secretly carried out a resistance movement for years.
The setting sun stretched the shadows of the mountains across the land.
Then came the sound of galloping horses.
Mixed among them were strange, beastlike howls.
The sounds gradually grew louder.
“Monk, they’re tightening the encirclement. It seems the villagers reported us.”
A fierce gust of wind clawed across the paper doors as though it intended to tear them apart.
Although the practitioners trembled in fear, they began putting down their wooden prayer instruments and Buddhist scriptures.
One by one, they picked up spears and swords instead.
As the tension rose, Wongwang looked toward the youngest practitioner of the Jeongil Society.
A boy.
“Heonwon, are you not afraid?”
The boy’s eyes wavered for a moment at the monk’s question.
Wongwang was someone who seemed capable of seeing straight through a person.
In front of him, everyone naturally found themselves confessing their true feelings.
“I was born as the child of slash-and-burn farmers. I was starving to death when you took me in, Monk. My life should have ended back then anyway. I’m not afraid to give it up for a greater cause.”
Heonwon was unusually mature for his age.
He understood things far beyond what one would expect from a boy.
But then, he began voicing the doubt buried deep inside him.
“But I don’t want us to lose to them like this. What was the meaning of all the years we spent training? Is our dream of saving the people truly going to end here?”
The Hee Kingdom was a nation with three hundred years of history.
Under the banner of the golden pine tree, it had created a brilliant culture and enjoyed generations of prosperity.
But everything began to change after the death of the eighteenth king, King Namcheol, who had been respected as a wise ruler.
His successor, the nineteenth king, King Nampyeong, brought both light and darkness to the kingdom.
King Nampyeong possessed a cruel nature.
Obsessed with ghosts and strange rituals, he neglected the affairs of the nation.
Eventually, he made a decision that pushed the Hee Kingdom toward hell itself.
During a forbidden ritual, he opened a dark gate leading to the realm of ghosts.
At first, strange incidents occurred only around the royal capital.
Before long, however, darkness spread across the entire kingdom like a layer of black fog.
The sound of weeping and screaming could be heard everywhere.
People became trapped inside impoverished villages, unable to escape.
Shadows of despair and terror covered their lives.
The members of the Jeongil Society traveled to places filled with powerful ghostly energy and purified them.
They also cared for the people, trying to help them escape the darkness.
But their efforts were not enough to stop the darkness spreading like wildfire.
“The people will never know about our prayers.”
At Heonwon’s bitter words, the other practitioners were unable to respond.
In truth, many of them shared the boy’s thoughts.
Sadness and resignation filled the hall.
Then Wongwang spoke.
“Did we truly pray?”
“……”
“Did we do anything more than breathe out and lower our bodies?”
It was Wongwang’s unique way of answering a question with another question.
Through this method, the person asking would realize that something they had accepted as absolute truth might not be absolute at all.
“Do not think of yourselves as martyrs.”
Several people seemed to understand what he meant.
Determination returned to their faces.
It was as if they had regained the strength to fight until the very end.
At that moment, a woman stepped forward and knelt before the monk.
She had a graceful face reminiscent of moonlight.
“Monk, what should we do now?”
Wongwang looked at the woman and Heonwon.
“Hoeryeon. Heonwon. You two have already been given a separate mission, have you not?”
His expression softened.
“Protect the child who descended from the heavens.”
Hoeryeon raised her head.
“Then what will happen to you, Monk?”
“I shall erase every trace I leave behind in this world, and even cast away this physical body.”
Hoeryeon and Heonwon hesitated.
They could not accept that they were about to lose the man who had been both their teacher and their parent.
Hot tears rolled down their cheeks.
“Do not grieve.”
Wongwang looked at them peacefully.
“Blame yourselves for nothing. And do not look back.”
“……”
“Go. The fate of the Hee Kingdom now rests in your hands.”
With those final words, Wongwang closed his eyes and smiled gently.
Hoeryeon and Heonwon gave their teacher one final bow before leaving.
The two headed toward a shrine hidden in the deepest part of the temple grounds.
Inside the shrine was an enormous lotus-shaped cradle.
A newborn baby slept peacefully within it, completely unaware of what was happening outside.
Heonwon stared down at the baby.
“Do you really believe it, Sister?”
He frowned slightly.
“That this child has the power to change the world? Looking at her like this, she just seems like an ordinary baby.”
When the members of the Jeongil Society had begun dying one after another due to the oppression of the ruling class and the strange incidents spreading throughout the kingdom, something miraculous had happened.
Far away in the middle of the heavens, a dark and bottomless hole opened.
Black smoke and clouds gathered around it, creating an ominous yet strangely sacred sight.
From inside the hole, a woman slowly descended toward the earth through the heavy atmosphere.
Long hair as dark as ebony flowed behind her.
She wore black silk robes that resembled wings, fluttering violently in the wind.
In her left hand, she tightly held a blue gemstone.
A mysterious energy leaked through the spaces between her fingers.
The moment she opened her eyes and gave a cold smile—
Flames spread for dozens of li.
They were the flames of karmic fire, capable of reducing everything to ash.
The woman’s appearance was breathtakingly beautiful.
Yet the destructive power of those flames was terrifying.
Soon afterward, brilliant light poured from her body.
Her form grew smaller and smaller until she transformed into a newborn baby.
The baby landed upon a giant lotus pedestal that had suddenly bloomed beneath her.
From that day onward, the members of the Jeongil Society cared for the child with devotion.
And because she had descended from the heavens while casting a black shadow across the sky, they gave her the title—
The Black Shadow Heavenly Maiden.
“Don’t think about it too deeply.”
Hoeryeon smiled and gently patted Heonwon on the back.
Among all the members of the Jeongil Society, the two had always been especially close.
They were practically siblings.
“How could people like us possibly understand the will of a god?”
Hoeryeon clasped her hands together.
Then she began creating a barrier around the child.
Pale violet flower petals scattered through the air, spreading a rich fragrance.
“There is only one thing I know.”
Her expression became calm.
“Today is the day of my destiny.”
The petals continued to swirl.
“We must protect this child.”
Hoeryeon smiled faintly.
“Because that is my mission.”
News that the Jeongil Society had taken the Black Shadow Heavenly Maiden under its protection quickly spread throughout the Hee Kingdom.
Some claimed she would judge the corrupted world.
Others believed she was yet another disaster born from the darkness consuming the kingdom.
To the ruling class of the Hee Kingdom, however, the Heavenly Maiden was nothing but a dangerous spark.
They could not tolerate the people gaining a new object of worship.
Nor could they accept the existence of the immense and mysterious power the Black Shadow Heavenly Maiden supposedly possessed.
King Nampyeong officially declared the Jeongil Society a heretical organization.
He then ordered his men to find and kill the infant they were protecting.
The sound of armor and military equipment crashing together rang throughout the mountain.
Heonwon quietly listened.
“Because of the Heavenly Maiden, we were driven from place to place with nowhere to settle.”
His voice trembled.
Yet determination filled his eyes.
“And now we’re preparing for our final stand.”
He clenched his fists.
“I just hope all those sacrifices weren’t meaningless.”
At that very moment, soldiers led by Prince Namwan, the younger brother of King Nampyeong, were surrounding the mountain from every direction.
Their goal was the complete destruction of the Jeongil Society’s stronghold.
A booming voice echoed through the mountains.
“Criminal Wongwang! You have deceived the people! Come out immediately and answer for your crimes!”
Another soldier shouted.
“Find the infant!”
Weapons were drawn.
“Kill every last one of them!”
King Nampyeong’s soldiers began climbing the stairs leading toward the temple.
They were known as the Divine Soldiers.
And their appearance was horrifying.
Their faces were the color of dirt, while their cloudy, pale eyes bulged unnaturally.
Their armor was stained and corroded with dried blood.
They moved stiffly, almost like dolls being controlled by invisible strings.
They wore no military boots.
Their bare feet were deathly pale.
Even stranger, their heels seemed to be missing, as if someone had cut them away.
The ghostly energy surrounding the temple grew so powerful that breathing itself became difficult.
Monk Wongwang remained seated cross-legged on the platform.
He began chanting a scripture.
As his low voice echoed through the temple grounds, the pieces of bamboo piled in the courtyard suddenly changed shape.
They transformed into armed warrior monks.
Holding spears and blades, they charged toward the king’s soldiers.
Every member of the Jeongil Society fought desperately.
But it was not enough.
Their situation worsened with every passing moment.
Realizing that the end had come, Hoeryeon turned toward Heonwon.
“I’m sorry.”
Heonwon looked at her.
Hoeryeon smiled sadly.
“I don’t think I can stay with you until the end.”
Before Heonwon could respond, Hoeryeon shoved him inside a hidden chamber within the shrine.
Then she closed and locked the heavy wooden door from outside.
Heonwon slammed his fists against it.
“Sister! What are you doing?!”
He struck the door again.
“Open the door!!”
Hoeryeon’s voice came from the other side.
“You know I have the ability to see the future.”
“……”
Her voice trembled slightly.
“Of all of us, you are the only one who survives.”
Heonwon froze.
“So you must protect the child until the very end.”
Heonwon screamed as he pounded the door hard enough to break his hands.
“Sister!”
Bang!
“Please open the door!”
Bang!
“Don’t try to fight them alone!”
Soon, thick smoke began leaking through the cracks around the door.
Heonwon coughed violently and covered his mouth and nose with his sleeve.
The temple must have been burning.
A terrible feeling filled the boy’s heart.
Firelight flickered wildly outside.
Screams sounded like distant echoes.
How much time passed?
Eventually, the soldiers who attacked the temple withdrew.
And finally—
The entire world became as silent as death.
Heonwon walked unsteadily out of the hidden chamber.
Blood covered his hands.
“Sister……”
Hoeryeon had clearly been caught in a fierce battle after locking him away.
Her corpse was covered in wounds.
She had not even managed to close her eyes before dying.
Heonwon’s trembling hand reached toward her face.
He gently closed her empty eyes.
Then his stunned gaze naturally shifted toward the lotus pedestal.
The marble lotus had been shattered.
And among the scattered blood—
The newborn baby lay motionless.
She was no longer breathing.
Heonwon collapsed onto the floor and began sobbing.
Everything was over.
The temple had been reduced to ruins.
Massive wooden pillars and railings lay burned and broken across the ground.
The corpses of practitioners were scattered everywhere.
It was a sight far too cruel for a young boy to endure.
“Monk……”
Heonwon’s voice broke.
“What am I supposed to do now……?”
A wind blew through the ruins.
The clouds parted.
For a brief moment, it felt as if time itself had stopped.
And then—
It happened.
The child’s lifeless body slowly floated into the air.
Celestial beings and phoenixes painted upon the ceiling of the temple suddenly emerged from the mural.
They flew around the child, protecting her as they soared upward.
The entire world began to shake.
The earth trembled violently.
The temple—
And the surrounding villages—
Were torn free from the ground.
They began rising into the sky.
Mountains.
Valleys.
Hundreds of houses.
Everything rose together.
People standing on opposite sides of the splitting earth were suddenly separated from one another.
Carriages were thrown aside.
Some people desperately clung to railings as they were dragged upward into the heavens.
It was impossible to believe, even while watching it with their own eyes.
The humans remaining on the ground could do nothing but hold their breath and watch the work of a god unfold before them.
Standing near the edge of a newly formed cliff, Heonwon stared down at the earth growing farther and farther away.
A dazed smile appeared on his face.
“So this……”
His eyes widened.
“This is heaven’s answer……”
Then the boy shouted at the top of his lungs.
“You foolish people of the earth! Are you watching?!”
His voice echoed across the rising land.
“Judgment will soon come!”
Eventually, the enormous mass of land stopped rising.
It remained suspended in the middle of the sky.
Thousands of feet of empty air now separated it from the earth below.
A blue river of stars surrounded the floating island and slowly circled it.
The solid earth itself gave off a dark and mysterious radiance.
